Buckingham Palace concerned for King Charles amid The Crown’s new season

The upcoming season of The Crown is the most sordid yet for Charles, with a palace official revealing the royal family has “moved to protect” him.

Senior sources at Buckingham Palace have reportedly made the rare move of weighing in about the upcoming season of Netflix’s hit series The Crown.

The royal drama has long made headlines for dredging up historical scandals the British royal family would rather forget, and events set to transpire in the upcoming fifth season are about as damaging as it gets.

The timing of the new series makes matters even more of a headache for the royals. The November 9 premiere comes just two short months after the Queen’s death and King Charles’ ascension to the throne.

A matter of weeks into the 73-year-old’s job as monarch, Charles’ most scandalous period will play out on season 5 of the lauded, award-winning series.

It’s set during the 1990s, amid the salacious breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage.

While the royals have never commented on the events that have unfolded on the drama, a senior royal source has told The Telegraph the palace has “moved to protect” the new King, with the official emphasising the show is “a drama, not a documentary.”

Stream more entertainment news live & on demand with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends 31 October, 2022 >

Dominic West is Prince Charles in the upcoming fifth season of The Crown. Picture: Netflix

Princess Diana is played by Elizabeth Debicki for season 5 of The Crown. Source: Netflix

A short video clip released to social media at Netflix’s TUDUM fan event at the weekend is possibly what triggered palace concerns.

It teases some of what to expect from the new season, featuring a scene intercut between Charles and Diana as they prepare to give separate high-profile TV interviews.

A voiceover intones, “There’s uproar in Britain after Prince Charles bared his soul to the nation but the Princess of Wales upstaged her husband speaking about her marriage, her life and her future” but it ends on, “This is becoming all-out war”.

Dominic West and Elizabeth Debicki join the cast as Charles and Diana, taking the reigns from Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin who portrayed the former Prince and Princess Wales in season four.

Josh O’Connor and Emma Corrin starred as Charles and Diana in season 4. Picture: Almeria Picture: Netflix

There was some speculation as to whether the upcoming series would be pushed back in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s death.

The season is to be especially challenging for Charles, resurfacing salacious details of he and Diana’s separation, which was publicly played out for all to read, hear and see. Charles’ image was severely dented by his protracted split from Diana, while Camilla was branded as “the other woman”.

The season will run from the early to mid-1990s but will end before Diana’s death, which will be covered in the sixth season.

The British public has largely embraced Charles since his ascension. Picture: Paul Grover / POOL / AFP

The series was to end after the fifth season, but series creator Peter Morgan was persuaded to extend it for one more chapter. The sixth season will take it up to the early 2000s, including the deaths of the Queen Mother and Margaret. Both women died in 2002.

The younger generation of royals will feature, with newcomers Rufus Kampa and Meg Bellamy cast as university-age Prince William and Kate Middleton.

-with Wenlei Ma